The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is expected to name its 2024 Olympic bid city on Thursday at a board of directors meeting.

Among the cities being considered are Los Angeles, no rx Boston, San Francisco and Washington D.C.

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The Baku 2015 European Games has unveiled the official mascots for the inaugural sporting event.

The two mascots, price viagra Jeyran the Gazelle and Nar the Pomegranate, have been inspired by Azerbaijani nature and heritage. They symbolise the country’s history and future.

The mascots will represent the first European Games across the world and also appear on branding to promote the event.

Azad Rahimov, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Youth and Sports and Chief Executive Officer of Baku 2015, said: “We are extremely happy to introduce Jeyran and Nar to the world, and we hope that they will come to represent the excitement of the inaugural European Games.

“As symbols of Baku 2015, they will inspire, excite and entertain a new generation of sports fans in Azerbaijan and will be visible around the city and the country in the coming months.”

Jeyran will become the cultural ambassador of the Games and will offer visitors to the country a glimpse into Azeribaijan’s rich heritage.

Nar is a pomegranate that symbolises unity in Azerbaijani folklore and features heavily in the Baku 2015 branding that is already being displayed extensively around the city.

Simon Clegg, Baku 2015 Chief Operating Officer, said: “Our mascots are important symbols of the inaugural European Games and we are delighted to be welcoming them to the Baku 2015 family.

“Jeyran will be an elegant cultural ambassador for the Games and for the rich heritage of Azerbaijan.

“Nar represents the energy, enthusiasm and fun of the Games and will be seen explaining and getting involved with the sports at our venues.”

Charlie Wijeratna, Baku 2015 Commercial Director, said: “We wanted to help bring the European Games to life in a playful and colourful way, and we hope that Jeyran and Nar will become popular across all of Azerbaijan as we look forward to hosting Europe’s elite athletes here at Baku 2015.

“The mascots have started life as flat illustrations, but will soon be animated, and of course transformed in three dimensions to form a part of the merchandising of the European Games.”

Baku 2015 will take place from June 12-28, 2015. 

The Irish Football Association (IFA) are confident that the redevelopment of Windsor Park will be on schedule and to budget.

Sports Minister Carál Ní Chuilín had warned the IFA the £26m funding that is needed for the project will not be released until the IFA has ‘appropriate governance,’ which led to concerns the redevelopment would fall through.

However, IFA CEO Patrick Nelson (pictured) said: “I’m confident we’ll be able to get to a place where DCAL (the Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure) are happy and we’re happy.”

Ní Chuilín’s concerns arose when Amateur League official David Martin was unanimously backed for the deputy president role at the IFA.

This was just three years after he was forced to resign from the position after failing a suitability test.

The IFA removed the requirement of the suitability tests for senior official roles earlier in the year.

Ní Chuilín said in Assembly: “I need to be assured that appropriate governance and accountability structures have been maintained.

“Until that happens, I can’t sign off on any agreement.”

However, Nelson took the statement as good news and commented: “As the guardians of public money, they need to be assured that our governance is sound. We’re working with them to give them those assurances.

“We’re confident we have very strong governance at the Association. We have come a long way on those sort of issues, we’ve had a number of independent reviews done and we’re classed as being satisfactory.”

The redevelopment of Windsor Park will be completed by the middle of 2015 according to Nelson, who also said the capacity would be at least 10,000 throughout the construction work.

Two new stands will be built which will increase the capacity from 12,000 to 18,000.

Sportswear firm Adidas has signed a deal with the Wanda group.

The agreement is the latest move by Adidas to try to strengthen its position as it goes head-to-head with bigger rival Nike in basketball-obsessed China.

China was the fastest growing market for Adidas in 2015, ed with sales up 18 percent to 2.5 billion euros ($2.76 billion), medstore 15 percent of the group total.

Adidas said it would become the sole sports brand sponsor of two Ironman triathlon events in China this year and also work with Wanda to support the development of soccer and basketball in China and worldwide.

Adidas and Wanda also signed a partnership to jointly develop their business in cities across China. Wanda will support Adidas plans to open more stores in its malls and other properties.

Wang Jianlin owner of Wanda said: “Both Wanda and Adidas share a number of common goals, both in a commercial sense and in our genuine desire to nurture sport not only in China but around the world,” 

Football League Clubs are being asked to consider re-organisation of the domestic league system into five divisions of 20 teams from the 2019/20 season.

Under the proposal, ed The Football League would become a four division competition below the Premier League, including a new League Three, with 100 clubs competing across the professional game.

In addition, the League Cup and League Trophy will be retained with the latter potentially having a revised format include a group structure of three games before becoming a knockout competition thereafter.

At this point, the Board of The Football League is offering no recommendation other than asking clubs to give the matter their full consideration, taking into account the following:

– Football League Clubs should be in a financially no worse, or preferably better, position as a result of any changes;
– Promotion to/relegation from the Premier League must be retained at three places;
– There would be no relegation out of The Football League in season 2018/19;
– Football League Clubs must support the final proposal.

Read more at HERE

Major League Soccer (MLS) club Seattle Sounders have agreed an extended regional broadcast deal with Q13 FOX (KCPQ-Channel 13) and JOEtv (KZJO-Channel 22).

Read more HERE.